Lolita Files is an author, screenwriter, and producer. Among her six bestselling novels are book club favorites ''Scenes from a Sistah'' and ''Child of God''. Her sixth novel, ''sex.lies.murder.fame'' was optioned for film by Carolyn Folks for Entertainment Studios with Files adapting the screenplay. The boo
''Once Upon A Time In Compton''
by former Compton Gang Unit Detectives

Timothy M. Brennan and Robert Ladd Timothy M. Brennan (March 2, 1959–November 16, 2021) and Robert Ladd (born February 19, 1959) joined the Compton Police Department as officers in 1982 and 1983, respectively. In 1988, they were promoted to become Compton's two-man gang unit. T ...

, along with Files, about Brennan and Ladd's years in the gang unit, the rise of Gangsta rap, gang wars, the L.A. riots, the investigations of the murders of rappers Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G., and the fall of the

Compton Police Department The Compton Police Department was the municipal law enforcement agency for the city of Compton, California until it was disbanded by the City Council in September 2000. The Compton City Council then contracted with the County of Los Angeles for ...

was published on April 25, 2017. Files has a degree in

Broadcast Journalism Broadcast journalism is the field of news and journals which are broadcast by electronic methods instead of the older methods, such as printed newspapers and posters. It works on radio (via air, cable, and Internet), television (via air, cable, ...

from the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

and is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. Files lives in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

, where she writes novels, nonfiction, and writes and produces projects for television, film, and new media.

Early life and education

Lolita Files was born in

Fort Lauderdale, FL Fort Lauderdale () is a coastal city located in the U.S. state of Florida, north of Miami along the Atlantic Ocean. It is the county seat of and largest city in Broward County with a population of 182,760 at the 2020 census, making it the tenth ...

, to Lillie (née Brackett) (d. 2008) and Arthur James Files, Sr. (d. 1999), She was named by her mother after the Stanley Kubrick film ''Lolita''. She has one older sibling, Arthur James Files, Jr. An avid reader from an early age, she was heavily immersed in mythology (

Greek mythology A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities ...

Roman mythology Roman mythology is the body of myths of ancient Rome as represented in the literature and visual arts of the Romans. One of a wide variety of genres of Roman folklore, ''Roman mythology'' may also refer to the modern study of these representa ...

, Norse mythology,

Arthurian legend The Matter of Britain is the body of medieval literature and legendary material associated with Great Britain and Brittany and the legendary kings and heroes associated with it, particularly King Arthur. It was one of the three great Wester ...

Dante Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian people, Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', origin ...

Divine Comedy The ''Divine Comedy'' ( it, Divina Commedia ) is an Italian narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun 1308 and completed in around 1321, shortly before the author's death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature ...

, and the works of

J. R. R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, ; 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlins ...

. Her love of

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

Toni Morrison Chloe Anthony Wofford Morrison (born Chloe Ardelia Wofford; February 18, 1931 – August 5, 2019), known as Toni Morrison, was an American novelist. Her first novel, ''The Bluest Eye'', was published in 1970. The critically acclaimed '' So ...

Fyodor Dostoyevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (, ; rus, Фёдор Михайлович Достоевский, Fyódor Mikháylovich Dostoyévskiy, p=ˈfʲɵdər mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪdʑ dəstɐˈjefskʲɪj, a=ru-Dostoevsky.ogg, links=yes; 11 November 18219 ...

, Zora Neale Hurston,

Louise Meriwether Louise Meriwether (born May 8, 1923) is an American novelist, essayist, journalist and activist, as well as a writer of biographies of historically important African Americans for children. She is best known for her first novel, ''Daddy Was a Num ...

Vladimir Nabokov Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (russian: link=no, Владимир Владимирович Набоков ; 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (), was a Russian-American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Bor ...

Chinua Achebe Chinua Achebe (; 16 November 1930 – 21 March 2013) was a Nigerian novelist, poet, and critic who is regarded as the dominant figure of modern African literature. His first novel and '' magnum opus'', ''Things Fall Apart'' (1958), occupies ...

Claude Brown Claude Brown (February 23, 1937 – February 2, 2002) was the author of '' Manchild in the Promised Land'', published to critical acclaim in 1965, which tells the story of his coming of age during the 1940s and 1950s in Harlem. He also published ...

, Richard Wright,

Gustav Flaubert Gustave Flaubert ( , , ; 12 December 1821 – 8 May 1880) was a French novelist. Highly influential, he has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, "in Flauber ...

, and Greek playwrights

Sophocles Sophocles (; grc, Σοφοκλῆς, , Sophoklễs; 497/6 – winter 406/5 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. is one of three ancient Greek tragedians, at least one of whose plays has survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or c ...

Aeschylus Aeschylus (, ; grc-gre, Αἰσχύλος ; c. 525/524 – c. 456/455 BC) was an ancient Greek tragedian, and is often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek ...

Euripides Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars a ...

, and

Aristophanes Aristophanes (; grc, Ἀριστοφάνης, ; c. 446 – c. 386 BC), son of Philippus, of the deme Kydathenaion ( la, Cydathenaeum), was a comic playwright or comedy-writer of ancient Athens and a poet of Old Attic Comedy. Eleven of his for ...

would inform and influence much of her work. Files graduated from Dillard High School with seven scholarships and attended the

at Gainesville. She briefly worked as a

stringer Stringer may refer to: Structural elements * Stringer (aircraft), or longeron, a strip of wood or metal to which the skin of an aircraft is fastened * Stringer (slag), an inclusion, possibly leading to a defect, in cast metal * Stringer (stairs), ...

for the student newspaper,

The Independent Florida Alligator ''The Independent Florida Alligator'' is the daily student newspaper of the University of Florida. ''The Alligator'' is one of the largest student-run newspapers in the United States, with a daily circulation of 35,000 and readership of more tha ...

, was a member of the University of Florida Gospel Choir, and pledged Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority (Iota Lambda chapter). In her senior year, she was a Senator representing the College of Journalism and Communications in UF's Student Senate.

Career

After graduating with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

degree in

, Files returned to

Fort Lauderdale A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

, working as a marketing manager for a pharmaceutical company and as a regional property coordinator for Great Atlantic Property Management, a real estate management company based out of

Newport News, VA Newport News () is an independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 186,247. Located in the Hampton Roads region, it is the 5th most populous city in Virginia and 140th most populous city in the Uni ...

with commercial and residential properties that spanned the Eastern Seaboard and parts of the Midwest. Her experience with the world of property management would later inform her first two novels, ''Scenes from a Sistah'' (1997), and its followup, ''Getting To The Good Part'' (1999). From 1992 to 1996, Files was the National Communications Manager for the

Facilities Management Facility management or facilities management (FM) is a professional management discipline focused on the efficient and effective delivery of logistics and other support services related to real property and buildings. It encompasses multiple dis ...

division of KinderCare Learning Centers, the nation's largest provider of for-profit child care and early childhood education, then based in

Montgomery, AL Montgomery is the capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Montgomery County. Named for the Irish soldier Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River, on the coastal Plain of the Gulf of Mexico. In the 202 ...

Writing

In the fall of 1994, Files overnighted two comedic short stories and fifty pages of ''Child of God,'' a dramatic novel she'd been sporadically working on for five years, to literary agency Jay Garon-Brooke Associates, Inc., the agency that represented bestselling author

John Grisham John Ray Grisham Jr. (; born February 8, 1955 in Jonesboro, Arkansas) is an American novelist, lawyer and former member of the 7th district of the Mississippi House of Representatives, known for his popular legal thrillers. According to the Ame ...

. In her query letter, Files stated she had eight more short stories that went with the two she sent. Nancy Coffey, an agent from Garon-Brooke, called the next morning requesting to see the rest of the material. A week later, Files was signed by the agency.

''Scenes From A Sistah'' and ''Child of God''

After signing with Garon-Brooke, while working on completing ''Child of God,'' Files began writing another novel, ''Scenes from a Sistah,'' completing the first draft in seven days. In February 1996,

Warner Books Grand Central Publishing is a book publishing imprint of Hachette Book Group, originally established in 1970 as Warner Books when Warner Communications acquired the Paperback Library. When Time Warner sold their book publishing business to Hachet ...

purchased ''Scenes'' for an advance of $50,000. In April 1996, Files left Corporate America for a full-time career as a writer. ''Scenes from a Sistah'' debuted a year later in April 1997 and was an instant hit, quickly selling out of its first printing and landing on several bestseller lists. "Child of God" was published in September 2001, after the release of ''Scenes'' sequel ''Getting to the Good Part'' in 1999 and ''Blind Ambitions,'' in 2000.

''HodgePodge''

The short stories that helped Files get signed by the Garon-Brooke literary agency were expanded into ''HodgePodge,'' a novel including several characters who feature prominently in the ''Scenes'' trilogy (''Scenes from a Sistah,'' ''Getting to the Good Part,'' and ''Tastes Like Chicken''). To-date, Files has not chosen to publish the book.

Off Broadway

In 1998, Files appeared in the play "Sisters Who Get Everything Without Giving Up Anything" at the Homefront Theatre, playing lead character Rea Montgomery.

Shakespeare's ''Hamlet'' vs Files' ''Child of God''

SUNY

Empire State College Empire State College (SUNY Empire or ESC) is a public university headquartered in Saratoga Springs, New York. It is part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system. Empire State College is a multi-site institution offering associate, ...

offers an eight-week course, "Exploring The Disciplines: Literature (EDU-232072)," centered around the examination of Shakespeare's ''

Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

'' and Lolita Files' novel, ''Child of God.'' Per the course description:

''Who Killed Tupac?'' television docuseries

Files produced and appears as an investigator for A&E's six-part limited series ''Who Killed Tupac?'' In the series, civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump leads an in-depth investigation into the unsolved murder of hip-hop artist

Tupac Shakur Tupac Amaru Shakur ( ; born Lesane Parish Crooks, June 16, 1971 – September 13, 1996), also known as 2Pac and Makaveli, was an American rapper. He is widely considered one of the most influential rappers of all time. Shakur is among the b ...

Personal life

In December 2012, Files took a

genealogical DNA test A genealogical DNA test is a DNA-based test used in genetic genealogy that looks at specific locations of a person's genome in order to find or verify ancestral genealogical relationships, or (with lower reliability) to estimate the ethnic mixt ...

through lineage tracing company African Ancestry. Results came back revealing a direct link of Files' maternal ancestry to the Brame and Balanta people of

Guinea-Bissau Guinea-Bissau ( ; pt, Guiné-Bissau; ff, italic=no, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫 𞤄𞤭𞤧𞤢𞥄𞤱𞤮, Gine-Bisaawo, script=Adlm; Mandinka: ''Gine-Bisawo''), officially the Republic of Guinea-Bissau ( pt, República da Guiné-Bissau, links=no ), ...

West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, M ...

Bibliography

Lolita Files speaking in Bakersfield CA (Feb 2013)

Novels

*''Scenes from a Sistah'' -

, April 1997 *''Getting to the Good Part'' -

, January 1999 *''Blind Ambitions'' -

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest pu ...

, September 2000 *''Child of God'' -

, September 2001 *''Tastes Like Chicken'' -

, May 2004 *''sex.lies.murder.fame.'' - Amistad/

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News ...

, January 2006

Short stories

*"Roses, Red, Room 416" in the anthology ''Black Silk'' -

, February 2002 *"Bobby Q's Sauce" in the anthology ''Twilight Moods'' - Flowers in Bloom Publishing, September 2002 *"Standing Room Only" in the anthology ''Brown Sugar 3: When Opposites Attract'' - Washington Square Press, January 2004 *"Appropriate Measures" - The Lo Zone, November 2014

Novella

*"Three For The Road" in the anthology ''You Only Get Better'' -

Kimani Press Kimani Press was formed by Harlequin Enterprises, Ltd. in December 2005, with the purchase of the Arabesque, Sepia, and New Spirit Imprints from BET Books. Arabesque was the first line of original African-American romance novels from a major publish ...

, March 2007

Nonfiction

''Once Upon A Time In Compton'' (Tim Brennan & Robert Ladd with Lolita Files) - Amazon, April 2017

Filmography

Producer

*''Who Killed Tupac?'' (TV Mini-Series, 2017) - Producer *''Baggage Claim'' (Film, 2013) -

Associate Producer A film producer is a person who oversees film production. Either employed by a production company or working independently, producers plan and coordinate various aspects of film production, such as selecting the script, coordinating writing, di ...

*''Love in the Nick of Tyme'' (Video, 2007) -

References

External links

Lolita Files' website, "The Lo Zone"
*
Lolita Files at the African American Literature Book Club (AALBC)Lolita Files Interview on Black Hollywood Live ConversationsThe Wall Street Journal: Chick Lit Goes 'Glam'
* ttp://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-7432-4525-8 Publishers Weekly Review of ''Tastes Like Chicken''br>NPR: All Things Considered: Lolita Files Discusses and Reads from ''Child of God''The Washington Post: Judged by Their Back Covers
* ttp://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1997-04-23/lifestyle/9704220201_1_black-professionals-black-men-bosses Sun-Sentinel: Far-fetched Tale That's Packed With Fun {{DEFAULTSORT:Files, Lolita Living people African-American women writers African-American screenwriters 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American women short story writers University of Florida alumni American women novelists People from Fort Lauderdale, Florida Year of birth missing (living people) 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers 20th-century American short story writers 21st-century American short story writers Screenwriters from Florida African-American novelists 20th-century African-American women 21st-century African-American women 21st-century African-American writers